Question on Alignments

Ai's never research ethics, also they dont research soldiering tree (after planetary invasion ) diplomacy techs, influence techs, and sensors. At least they didnt in ~30 huge/large galaxy games i played (on all difficulties including masochistic)

Does that mean building the temples to get a share of the other empires trade that have the same alingnment as you is useless? Since none of them have a declared alignment?
OR are they all considered neutral so the only temple worth building would be the neutral one?

Yes, they do too research the Ethics branch, as well as soldering. I have seen them do it.

You do not need to spy to keep an eye on their alignments. That info is always there. I very seldom will put money into espionage. I think it is a waste unless I want to look directly at their worlds. I can tell from the ships they are building what tech level they are at, and at their alignment to see if they are likely to have those particular weapons.

But I have seen several that have aligned by mid game or late game. So they have to be researching it.
And I sometimes come up on a race that has over 100 soldering when I attack their world, And that means they have at least Space Marines if not Shock Troops.

Another tactic is to research the Xeno Ethics yourself and then sell it off to them, they will always buy it. But I am sure that some of them do research it.

After I posted this question, I start my saved game and did just as Achronous suggested, I gave away Xeno Ethics to all the other races and the turn after that, their alignments were set, Dregin now is evil and Iconians (or something like that) is now good. Seems strange they don't research it themselves, maybe it's because I'm at normal differiculty.

PS: In my original post up top, I made a mistake, the screen actually said NO ALIGNMENT (Leaning toward evil), not Neutral.

Happy conquering and a good weekend to all

No alignment means that they haven't researched Xeno Ethics and chosen an alignment, and leaning towards good or evil means that their actions to date have indicated their inclinations. This is the same as a player who has chosen mostly good or evil moral choices, when presented with them, you can look at the alignment graph for your civilization. I have had the "evil robot" or "good robot" show up in the tech research announcementswhen I was only a little ways off of neutral, i.e. "leaning towards".

I've seen the AI build NLCs so that means they must have researched Xeno Ethics. However I don't think they research it below Challenging, haven't played a game on normal for a while, but I seem to remember that they didn't!
Happy Hunting

visit the Kingdom of Dodorian Federations: The ultimate tourist attraction

Yes, they do too research the Ethics branch, as well as soldering. I have seen them do it.

/confirmed. I never researched ethics, but I got it from a computer player (either through trade or conquest).

They give it a very low priority, but eventually they will research it, if the game drags on long enough.

Well in my Crippling game they still haven't researched it.

On the other hand I usually rush for Xeno Ethics, since it gives me access to Harmony Crystals and even extra morale boost when I take Neutral alignment.

It's funny how I'm running 80% tax rate with most of the planets around 100% approval (exempt those above 10mil people). But I also have Ultra Spices and many entertainment techs, plus 20% morale race pick and populist party.